Intro Software Productivity Metrics Formula

When choosing a time tracking tool, it is important to understand the many different types of tools available. Tools like Mavenlink, Wrike, and Zoho Projects all include robust time monitoring features for professional services companies. On the other hand, the time tracking features in such tools are available only as part of larger project management (PM) suites. As a result, you are paying a lot more cash for things such as file storage, in-app chat, progress reports, and change administration. On the opposite end of the spectrum, you’ll find pure play time tracking tools like Hubstaff (which starts at $5 per month per user) and TSheets, our Editors’ Choice tool for time tracking. Software Productivity Metrics Formula

Attributes and Usage

Hubstaff’s user interface (UI) is designed with an attractive left-rail blue navigation bar which leaves lots of room on the side of your screen for data entry and analysis. When you first log into the system, you’ll be taken to the main dashboard, which gives you an overview of the number of hours your employees have worked that day and the number of hours they’ve worked over the past seven days. You’ll also find a list of each member, their latest jobs, and how active they’ve been over the past week. This is a solid PM data visualization that lets you immediately differentiate between workhorses and do-nothings, and it immediately calls to focus projects which are getting more than enough focus and projects that are being neglected.

There are two ways to add time in Hubstaff: You can construct manual timesheets with past hours worked, or you can use the stopwatch feature on Hubstaff’s native desktop app. With the timesheet attribute, you log in your hours since you probably did with pen and paper through the analog age of time tracking. Essentially, you work your shift, you add the time to your timesheet, and you also sign off on it. This is a pretty standard method of tracking time. Unfortunately, because Hubstaff does not let you add future time, you can’t use the platform for a shift organizer. Administrators can allow users manually edit previously submitted timesheets, and they’re able to induce users to need a motive to guarantee they’re actually adding hours that they worked. Admins can also set the system up to let users to start tracking time if they haven’t clocked into the system in a little while.

The second, and most bothersome, way of monitoring moment in Hubstaff is by using the stopwatch feature. In every solution we analyzed, this component can be found within the boundaries of your web browser–every solution that is, except for Hubstaff. With Hubstaff, you are expected to download an native desktop application that lives within another window. In it, you can choose your project, press Start, along with your timer will start counting. When you’re done, your activity and your screenshots will be transmitted to the principal hub. The native app will take a photo at random periods of up to 3 shots per hour depending on how often the admin wants to spy on workers. Screenshots can be partly fuzzy to not record sensitive information on every grab, but a lot of the display is left unsullied that you’ll still get a sense of if the display is really on work-related or play-related content. This is an annoyingly complex and complicated means to manually track time, especially if you’re jumping from task to task throughout the day. Hubstaff must find a way to add the stopwatch and screengrab components to the cloud-based architecture to simplify ease of use.

Tracking time in real-time on Hubstaff’s Android and iOS apps is precisely the same as it is on the desktop app. The mobile programs let admins monitor movements via GPS tracking. This gives you an overview of how much movement was performed by your worker by capturing location data at different stages.

The Schedules tab enables you to assign times and dates for workers to do the job. It is possible to put a minimum number of hours to work, a lunch break interval, and you’ll be able to make it a recurring shift. The tool’s reporting applications is terribly basic: You’ll receive access to weekly, daily, project, and member view reports in addition to a”custom” report which allows you filter data from the aforementioned reports. When compared to the PM options in this class, Hubstaff’s coverage is utterly embarrassing consequently, if your target is to understand and evolve according to when and how your employees manage time, you would be better off working using Zoho Projects, our Editors’ Choice for PM.

Admins receive notifications once they have reached weekly staffing and budget limits. Invoices are automatically calculated and created based on the time each employee worked, in addition to their associated pay rate. It is possible to set up automatic citizenship through PayPal, which lets you automate payments based on time monitored within the application. Remember: Consumers don’t need to send time through for acceptance, therefore automatic payments will be made whether employees were wrong or right about the number of hours that they worked. There is no reminder for supervisors to double-check each timesheet before automatic payments go out so, if you are worried about making false payments, then it is possible to set PayPal payments to manual. Software Productivity Metrics Formula

Cost And Options

Hubstaff was built to provide you with Big Brother-level oversight into when workers are working, what they’re doing while they work, and what you really want to cover them as soon as the job is done. The Basic $5-per-month program provides you access to simple time tracking tools, a worker payment schedule supervisor, 24/7 support, and user settings that may be managed in an employee-by-employee basis. Additionally, this program lets you keep tabs on whether your employees are working by allowing you record screenshots while they work in addition to monitor mouse and keyboard activity during changes. Of the five tools we’ve tested, Hubstaff is the only instrument which offered this level of insight into the way that employees are progressing. Although screen and keyboard monitoring are useful (albeit over-reaching) features for a change screen, Hubstaff’s implementation leaves much to be wanted (more on this later).

The 9-per-user-per-month Premium plan includes all you’ll find in the Basic program, but you’ll also get access to Hubstaff’s application programming interface (API) to integrate the tool with other third party applications. The Premium package also has a lightweight schedulingtool that provides administrators the capability to assign changes and assign tasks from inside the console. Premium customers can also use the application to create invoices and create PayPal payments automatically. Clients that pay yearly will receive two months free (for both price tiers).

In comparison to TSheets, its closest competition in our roundup, Hubstaff is reasonably priced, especially given the added tracking features that are unavailable in competitive tools. TSheets offers a fundamental free accounts, as well as a $4-per-user-per-month account that costs a $16 base fee a month for groups with fewer than 100 users, and a $80 base fee per month for teams with over 100 users. The base fee, which Hubstaff does not charge, makes TSheets slightly more expensive than Hubstaff, even in Hubstaff’s Premium degree.

If you are more interested in these hulky PM solutions, then you’ll need to pony up a bit more cash. Mavenlink’s cheapest plan that includes time monitoring costs $39 per user per month. Zoho’s cheapest time tracking plan is $25 per month for an infinite number of consumers (which is a pretty good deal if you want all of the extra PM features). Wrike’s cheapest time tracking plan costs $24.80 per user per month.

What Should Be Added

Editor’s note: Since our first review of Hubstaff, the company has released a significant upgrade in late 2018 that specifically addressed certain feature weaknesses or omissions, including adding a internet timer, fleshing out reporting choices, and adding action levels and monitor tracking. We are going to be testing these features shortly and you’ll see the results in an upcoming update to this review.

Aside from its draconian screengrab and keystroke monitoring, Hubstaff doesn’t do a very good job allowing for deeper change supervision. By way of example, Hubstaff doesn’t allow advanced tracking. If you operate a trucking company and you are less concerned about the number of hours a trucker drove than the distance driven, then there is no way to manage that in Hubstaff. Users may add notes to an empty text field, but that data won’t be mixed into accounts. This means that you can not use it to find out about who’s working, how they are functioning, and what they’re generating (other than the number of hours monitored ). TSheets not only provides you this choice, it gives you the ability to make six additional customizable advanced monitoring fields. You might also add a question for every clock-out (i.e.,”Was there an incident? Yes. No.”) And the system forces the consumer to respond to the questions at the end of each shift or else they won’t have the ability to clock out.

As hardcore as Hubstaff is all about monitoring work, the application doesn’t permit for IP address restrictions, which means your employees can say they’re working from the office but they could actually be operating from a cruise boat in the Bahamas (unless they are using the mobile app to monitor time). This is a normal feature that’s available in virtually every other tool we tested. Hubstaff also does not enable admins to need users to snap a photograph when they report to work. I suppose it’s overkill to make somebody take a selfie right before you get started recording their screen and tracking their keystrokes, but TSheets lets you place this as a necessity (which makes sense, particularly if you’re tracking tasks done outside of a computer, such as retail, building, or entertainment work). The program also does not let users clock in via a telephone call, which can be a component TSheets and other service providers make readily available for workers who don’t have a smartphone.

Tracking Employee Work

We’ve touched on how a number of Hubstaff’s more Big Brother-like features factor into time monitoring. But the platform also offers many of the hallmarks of worker monitoring tools. Hubstaff’s employee tracking features include keystroke logging, URL and program monitoring, GPS and location tracking, and action screenshots.

As soon as you set your users and they download the timer program onto their server, the desktop app not only monitors time but will take screenshots randomly or at custom intervals, such as three screenshots per minute. This applies not just to the user’s main display but any attached monitors too. Hubstaff does not log keys however, it does monitor the action provided via the mouse and computer keyboard, providing companies a calculation of how active the worker is. This info all winds up around the Hubstaff dashboard from the Activity tab. This is where you can then pick an individual from the drop-down menu to view their screenshots connected with activity data.

If it comes to application and URL monitoring, Hubstaff goes beyond just tracking time to see what sites and apps a worker opened or visited and how long they were there. The Reports module can subsequently run custom questions on vectors like program usage mapped against time and action. Hubstaff incorporates with job and job management tools such as Asana and Trello to filter reports from particular projects or tasks to monitor productivity.

One unique employee tracking feature offered is GPS location monitoring through Hubstaff’s mobile app. While the cellular app can not take screenshots or capture mobile app and website activity, it allows you to monitor and log location for employees working in the area. While the depth of monitoring data and surveillance features can not step up to a powerhouse tool such as Teramind, our Editors’ Choice for worker tracking, Hubstaff includes a helpful choice of features for companies that want a little more oversight. Software Productivity Metrics Formula

Summary

Hubstaff is a easy-to-administer, feature-rich, time monitoring tool. If you’re diligent about tracking employee behavior while on the clockthen there is no better software available than Hubstaff. You’ll have the ability to log screenshots, track keystroke volume, and path moves via GPS tracking.

Regrettably, if you’re trying to find a platform which goes the extra mile to enable customization, irregular information entry, or a more sophisticated reporting arrangement, then Hubstaff will not be right for you. In addition, in case you choose a different program, your employees will thank you for not needing them to obtain a secondary app for monitoring time–particularly once you consider that every other tool we reviewed makes this possible within the boundaries of their web-based UI. Software Productivity Metrics Formula